Charita Goshay: Summer brings out best, worst in American culture

Monday

Jul 19, 2010 at 12:01 AMJul 19, 2010 at 7:16 PM

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Simply told, yet compelling in its message, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is the story of prejudices and a miscarriage of justice in a small town as seen through the eyes of children.Yet not even this American classic gets to stand unmolested. It regularly makes the list of books some people want to see banned from public libraries. Currently, some critics are trying to recast the book as Harper Lee’s flawed attempt at propagating liberal humanism.

Charita Goshay

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Simply told, yet compelling in its message, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is the story of prejudices and a miscarriage of justice in a small town as seen through the eyes of children.

It’s about what happens when fear and ignorance are permitted to go to seed, and how small-mindedness and hatred wither in the light of a child’s clear-eyed questions.

If you haven’t read it, you’ve done yourself an injustice. Push away from the keyboard and head to the nearest library or bookstore.

Yet not even this American classic gets to stand unmolested. It regularly makes the list of books some people want to see banned from public libraries. Currently, some critics are trying to recast the book as Harper Lee’s flawed attempt at propagating liberal humanism.

Really? And here I thought it was a quintessentially American story, reminding us that injustice for one diminishes justice for all, that fairness is not situational, and that what is right is almost always unpopular.

Fifty years from now, people still will be reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” because it is an eloquent refutation of why evil cannot be permitted to flourish in a nation that prides itself on all men being created equal. No one will be reading what some critic back in 2010 had to say about it.

So-called experts

There’s a cottage industry of people whose stock and trade is blame, bombast and outrage. The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s decision to elbow his way into the conflict between LeBron James and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is the equivalent of tossing a chair into the middle of a bar fight: It only serves to make everyone angrier and does nothing in the way of stopping the fight.

Even as joblessness for black men is nearly double that of other groups, Jackson’s decision to jump into the fray to defend a multimillionaire who he claims is being treated like a runaway slave is preposterous.

Gilbert’s letter concerning James was as wrong as two left shoes, but not even he deserves that hit. Gilbert blew a gasket because green is the new black.

Jackson, who once mused aloud about castrating candidate Barack Obama, shows what can happen when a man falls in love with the sound of his own voice. It also is typical of the many so-called experts and pundits of all persuasions who know they must make increasingly outrageous statements to hold your attention.

By resorting to such absurdities, they’re telling you exactly what they think of your intelligence.

Charita Goshay writes for The Repository in Canton, Ohio. Contact her at charita.goshay@cantonrep.com.